KFC Announces Best Christmas Chicken Sales Ever in 2013

Believe it or not, the long-standing native Christmas tradition in Japan is to order a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and dig in with family and friends at home.

Legend has it that many decades ago, American servicemen stationed in Japan settled for KFC when they couldn’t find turkey for a Christmas feast, and the KFC Japan marketing team ran with the idea. Now, it’s not uncommon to meet Japanese people that assume KFC is a common Christmas dinner in America too, when in reality it’s only a step above Chinese takeout.

During the holiday season, KFC breaks out a number of limited-time menu options that often include Christmas cake (another Japanese holiday tradition), sides and more. The items usually need to be reserved in advance and feature supremely unappetizing names such as, “Christmas Barrel” – which we hope is literally a barrel with layers of traditional Christmas dishes ground to a semi-liquid consistency.

KFC Christmas feasts are so popular in Japan, the chain announced this year was their best ever for Christmas sales, reaching 6.6 billion yen (about 16 million USD) in revenue from December 21 – December 25.